The epigenome defines the entirety of the components affecting gene expression, including nucleosomal histones, DNA methylation and ATP remodeling complexes
The epigenome defines the entirety of the components affecting gene expression, including nucleosomal histones, DNA methylation and ATP remodeling complexes. the subsequent surge in myelin gene expression. Defective remyelination can be recapitulated in mice receiving systemic administration of pharmacological HDAC inhibitors during cuprizone treatment and is consistent with results showing defective differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitors after silencing specific HDAC isoforms. Thus, we suggest that inefficient epigenetic modulation of the oligodendrocyte differentiation program contributes to the age-dependent decline in remyelination efficiency. Remyelination is the regenerative process in which new myelin sheaths are restored to demyelinated axons. In the CNS, this process is Picroside II mediated by the recruitment and differentiation of a widespread population of adult stem and progenitor cells, called oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs), into myelin sheathCforming oligodendrocytes1C3. Remyelination can be a highly efficient process resulting in complete healing in both experimental models and clinical demyelinating diseases, including multiple sclerosis4C8. However, for reasons that are not fully understood, remyelination may be incomplete or fail in multiple sclerosis, leaving axons demyelinated and vulnerable to atrophy9. For this reason, therapeutic promotion of remyelination represents Picroside II an attractive option for preventing the axonal loss that underlies the progressive deterioration frequently associated with the later stages of the disease10,11. One of the most profound factors affecting remyelination is aging: as with other regenerative processes, remyelination becomes less efficient with age12, an effect that ismore pronounced inmales than in females13. This age-associated effect is due to impairment of OPC recruitment and differentiation14, of which inefficient differentiation is the more significant, as increasing the availability of OPCs during remyelination in old animals does not enhance remyelination efficiency15. Inefficient OPC differentiation in aging mirrors non-remyelinating plaques in humans with multiple sclerosis, which are replete with oligodendrocyte-lineage cells that fail to differentiate into remyelinating oligodendrocytes16C18. Thus, understanding OPC differentiation is central to explaining remyelination failure and the age-associated decline in remyelination, and hence identifying potential therapeutic targets. Environmental changes associated with aging and remyelination include modifications of the innate immune and growth factors responses to demyelination19,20. However, adding single growth factors to old animals does not increase remyelination efficiency, suggesting the existence of multiple regulators of remyelination21. Conversely, transcriptional regulators of remyelination such as Olig1 profoundly affect remyelination efficiency22, acting with other transcription factors to modulate myelin gene expression23. Environmental effects on gene expression are modulated by changes in the epigenome that include post-translational modifications of nucleosomal histones24C26. Preventing histone deacetylation is detrimental for developmental myelination27, although it is unknown whether similar mechanisms affect OPC differentiation during remyelination. Here we use a toxin-induced mouse model of demyelination and remyelination28 to test the hypotheses that (i) remyelination efficiency requires deacetylation of nucleosomal histones, which leads to the execution of Rabbit polyclonal to XK.Kell and XK are two covalently linked plasma membrane proteins that constitute the Kell bloodgroup system, a group of antigens on the surface of red blood cells that are important determinantsof blood type and targets for autoimmune or alloimmune diseases. XK is a 444 amino acid proteinthat spans the membrane 10 times and carries the ubiquitous antigen, Kx, which determines bloodtype. XK also plays a role in the sodium-dependent membrane transport of oligopeptides andneutral amino acids. XK is expressed at high levels in brain, heart, skeletal muscle and pancreas.Defects in the XK gene cause McLeod syndrome (MLS), an X-linked multisystem disordercharacterized by abnormalities in neuromuscular and hematopoietic system such as acanthocytic redblood cells and late-onset forms of muscular dystrophy with nerve abnormalities a complex transcriptional program of OPC differentiation, and (ii) this process is altered during aging. RESULTS Transcriptional response in remyelinating young mice To test the hypothesis that remyelination involves epigenetic modulation of gene expression, we first used the cuprizone model of demyelination in young (8-week-old) C57BL/6 mice. Mice fed a cuprizone-containing diet for 6 weeks developed demyelination of the dorsal corpus callosum, followed by spontaneous remyelination on removal of cuprizone (6C8 weeks) (data not shown). Decreased myelin gene transcripts were recognized in the corpus callosum of cuprizone-fed mice after 2 weeks of cuprizone treatment (Fig. 1a). The manifestation remained low until 4 weeks of treatment and then spontaneously improved until 6 weeks (Fig. 1a). The decrease in transcripts was paralleled by decreased myelin proteins obvious at 4 weeks and persisting until 6 weeks (Fig. 1b). The early decrease in Picroside II myelin gene transcripts was associated with an increase in and additional transcriptional inhibitors (and (= 3). (b) Western blot analysis of proteins extracted from your corpus callosum of individual mice at 4 weeks (Cup4w) or 6 weeks (Cup6w), quantified by densitometry and.